Friday, March 26
Lasseters Adds Flash -- Australian online casino Lasseters.com has added 21 new Flash games to its suite that already contains 65 Shockwave Games. The new addition is composed of 16 slots, three table games, and two video poker games. Lasseters has also converted some its most popular Shockwave games to the quick downloading Flash format, including blackjack, roulette, baccarat, Bernie's slots, Blazing Saddles, Buccaneers Treasure, Down Under, and Festive Follies. The group, which recently launched a Nickel Zone on its site for low rollers, says more Flash Games will be launched in the near future.
Guilty -- Miles Rodgers, the former director of the Platinum Racing Club was yesterday banned by the UK Jockey Club for two years because he was found to have laid two of his horses to lose on betting exchange Betfair. Rodgers has become the first person to suffer penalties extending from the Jockey Club's new rules that make it illegal for owners, trainers, and stable staff to bet against their own horses. Betfair, who last year signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jockey Club, called the Jockey Club's attention to suspicious betting accounts linked to Rodgers. The Jockey Club says Betfair's evidence plaid a critical part of the investigation.
Horseracing Channel -- Attheraces is likely to go off the air on Tuesday because its ownership could not reach a new deal with racecourses, but some of the leading racecourses are already well into planning their own racing channel. Officials with Newbury and Doncaster have disclosed that they could launch the Horseracing Channel within a few weeks. RCA's Racetech could possibly supply pictures for the station. The Racing Post reported that a large number of the 49 tracks that had signed on to the Attheraces deal are already supporting the new channel.
Quoteworthy -- "The announcement is hardly a surprise, but is no less disappointing for that. The fact is that the sport has stabilized its share of a burgeoning betting market as a result of the professional and consistent coverage which attheraces has broadcast. Our customers have benefited from that and racing has grown from a 30 to a near 50 per cent share of Betdaq's overall turnover. Those same customers have already begun to push us to look for alternative betting markets in the event of racing going dark for an extended period."-- Rob Hartnett, managing director of betting exchange Betdaq, responding to the announcement that attheraces will likely go off the air Tuesday.
Thursday, March 25
Delayed Again -- A Dutch court has for the third time postponed a verdict in the case of DeLotto vs. Ladbrokes. The court now says it will render a decision on May 12. The three judges presiding over the case have not given any indication as to why they require another delay.
DDoS Attacks -- Sporting Index is the latest company to see its online betting service brought down by extortionists. The Web site came under a DDoS attack on Monday, and by Tuesday the company sent a letter to its clients explaining that its Internet service has been temporarily suspended. According to Sporting Index spokesperson Wally Pyrah, "We have had to suspend the Web site as it has been attacked by an extortion ring. They are completely flooding the site with mass traffic and we have had to suspend until it passes over."
Survey Says -- The Gallup Organization has published the results to its annual Gallup Lifestyle Poll, for which 1,011 American adults were surveyed via telephone between Dec. 11 and Dec. 14, 2003 and asked whether or not they participated in each of 11 forms of gambling within the last year. State lotteries are the most common form of gambling, with 49 percent of respondents reported to have played the lottery. Casino gambling is the second most popular gambling activity, with 30 percent reporting to have gambled at a casino. Only one percent of the respondents say the have gambled on the Internet within the last year. Casino gambling has seen the most positive growth change since 1989 when the Lifestyle Poll was first conducted. In 1989 only 20 percent reported to have gambled at a casino. Professional sports betting has seen the most decline since 1989 when 22 percent responded that they had been participated in gambling on pro sports. In December 2003, only 10 percent of polled Americans said they had done so.
Mobile Games -- Mobile content supplier MonsterMob Group will provide mLotto with pay-to-play interactive mobile phone betting games. MonsterMob will market the games to existing and new customers, including its 3.6 million customer base. MLotto, which has a U.K. bookmaking permit, will operate the service under a new brand, Spin 2 Win. MonsterMob made an initial investment and took options over five percent of the ordinary share capital of mLotto. The companies will share the revenue generated by the alliance.
Quoteworthy -- "If the tax review is deemed to be uncompetitive then the industry will shift offshore."
--Joe Tighe, CEO of betting exchange software developer Trading Sports. Tighe is quoted in a New Media Age article that discusses the reaction of betting exchange companies in response to UK Chancellor Gordon Brown's proposal to review implementing a new tax structure on betting exchanges.
Welcome Aboard -- U.K.-based betting exchange Betfair has appointed Sir Robert Horton as its non-executive Chairman. 64-year old Horton is a former Chairman and Chief Executive of BP, Chairman of Railtrack Plc, and President of the Chemical Industries Association. . . . Chartwell Technology Inc, an online and mobile gaming software provider, has appointed Peter Kinash as an independent member of its board of directors. Kinash will fill the vacancy left by resigning Steven Latham, who served on the company's board since 1998. Kinash, a chartered accountant, is a former CFO of Wi-Lan Inc and partner with KPMG. He has been granted an option to purchase 50,000 common shares of Chartwell Technology…. VirtGame Corp, a provider of server-based software solutions to the gaming and lottery industries, has appointed Conway Downing, Jr. as Director of Public Lottery. Downing will lead the company's deployment of software products and technology. He founded Ascendx Holdings Inc in 1987, and now leads a Washington, DC government relations and public affairs firm called Mattox Woolfolk. Downing is a member of the Virginia State Bar and a member of the International Association of Gaming Attorneys.
Laser Scam -- Three people were arrested at the Ritz Hotel casino in London on suspicion of having won a huge sum of money by cheating. Metropolitan police are investigating whether the suspects used a laser scanner inside a mobile phone to gauge the spin and velocity of a ball in order to predict its final resting place on a roulette wheel.
Nat'l Lotto Licensing -- In an effort to make it easier for companies to bid against Camelot, members of England's Parliamentary Culture Select Committee have drafted a report that recommends new ways in which the National Lottery license can be awarded. The committee is concerned that Camelot could establish a perpetual monopoly unless the current licensing and bidding scheme is changed. The committee has suggested a second license so that another operator could compete with Camelot, who describes the proposals as "a serious threat to the money raised for good causes."
Wednesday, March 24
Ahead of Schedule -- Chimera Technology Corp. launched its casino games platform on March 18, 45 days ahead of its scheduled May 2 release date. The company says its casino product is performing flawlessly. Customers can play Chimera's games for fun or real cash.
More Options -- Holotype, an Australian developer of interactive TV applications, has signed a deal with Sky TV New Zealand and the New Zealand Racing Board whereby it will add trifecta, quinella, and EasyBet features to their interactive TV betting service, SkyBet. The SkyBet service went live last April and currently turns over $500,000 through two betting channels, SKY Sports and Trackside. The new horse race betting options come as a result of high customer demand.
Mobile Child Protection -- To protect minors from unsuitable content, Virgin Mobile will adopt an opt-in policy toward adult content, meaning that users must first express an interest in gambling or pornographic information before it receive any via mobile phone Internet. Early next month Vodafone will become the first mobile Internet service provider to filter out adult Web sites.
Inspector -- Poker Inspector Inc. has unveiled Online Hold'em Inspector, a program that displays detailed betting statistics and information for each round of betting. The program captures the up cards automatically so the player does not need to enter any information. Poker Inspector says the program can help shorten the learning curve for beginner players because it helps them understand the strengths and odds of a hand at any time. The company also offers Online 7-Card Stud Inspector, which keeps track of live and dead cards. Both programs offer a play-money trial version and can be configured for use with Party Poker, Empire Poker, Poker Stars, UltimateBet, Paradise Poker, Ladbrokes Poker, and Royal Vegas Poker.
Tuesday, March 23
Riverhead Bought -- Cisco Systems is buying Riverhead Networks, the California-based company that recently begun carving a niche for itself in the DDoS and security solutions sector. Cisco will pay $39 million in cash for all the outstanding shares in Riverhead that it does not already own and will convert outstanding Riverhead options to Cisco options. Riverhead will become part of Cisco's Internet Switching Business Unit and its products will be sold through Cisco sales channels. Founded in 2000, Riverhead has 44 employees.
Sportingbet Appointment -- Sportingbet has appointed Robert Holt, the current chairman and chief executive of Mears, as its board's new non-executive director. Holt will be taking over the position previously held by John Blowers, who is resigning after having served as director since Sportingbet began trading shares on the Ofex market five years ago. Holt also serves as a director for Host Europe and Staffing Ventures.
Geolocation -- Harrah's has contracted Quova, a provider and developer of Web geography services and technologies, to deploy its GeoPoint product for customer location verification on Harrah's LuckyMe online gaming web site.
The Survey Says. . . -- The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published a report indicating that American Internet users are growing increasingly more disillusioned with e-mail and as a result are using it less often, despite the attempts of the U.S. government to curb the spam problem by enacting federal legislation. The group's survey found that 29 percent of respondents are using e-mail less because of spam, 63 percent said they are less trusting of e-mail in general, and 77 percent said spam made being online unpleasant and annoying.
Monday, March 22
Betdaq -- Rob Hartnett, managing director for Irish betting exchange Betdaq, told New Media Age that his company has nearly finalized an agreement with the British Jockey Club whereby Betdaq would share certain betting information with the club in cases of suspicious betting. "We're in the final stages of discussions. It's a different version which is better for all parties," he said. "We'd only be comfortable if there was a balance between catching the guilty and protecting the innocent." While two other betting exchanges, Betfair and Sporting Odds, signed Memorandums of Understanding with the Jockey Club in June, Betdaq refused to do so because of customer privacy concerns.
Blackout -- ThoroughVision, the group that holds the telecast rights to racing by the Sydney Turf Club and the Australian Jockey Club, will hold meetings this week to appoint an alternative telecaster for racing in Sydney. Tab Ltd.'s Sky Channel on Saturday began blocking out racing in Sydney because it was unable to reach an agreement with ThoroughVision.
P2P Launch Delayed -- U.K.-based betting company Sportingbet had been preparing to launch a betting exchange, but has decided to delay its launch now that the British government is reviewing betting exchanges to determine what level of tax players should pay. Sportingbet CEO Mark Blandford said, "We have trialed an exchange, and in light of the budget statement we have put that on hold. I would be very disappointed if this dragged on into next year because we want clarity in terms of competition."
New Games -- Cyprus-based software developer Playtech has added seven new games to its 65-game casino suite. The new games include two original eight-line slots, a variation of video poker, a new fixed-odds game and revamped versions of three of Playtech's progressives. Playtech says the introduction of the new games, which were developed in response to player requests, is part of the company's long-term strategy of providing a continuously renewed stock of games.
DDoS Monitoring -- BBC and Netcraft, a server monitoring company, have examined the status of 20 of England's top betting Web sites since March 1. From that time until now, those top 20 sites have experienced 33 different service outages (some due to DDOS attacks) that have taken 15 of them offline for some period of time. Check the following link for updated graphical data on the Web sites' online status: uptime.netcraft.com/perf/reports/gambling?orderby=outage_time&reverse=1.
Confiscated -- The Shanghai Morning Post reports that Beijing Customs, while conducting regular inspections of postal deliveries, seized 618 online gambling discs that were shipped from Switzerland. The discs would have permitted users to gamble with online casinos hosted overseas. Online gambling is illegal in China.
P2P Financial Exchange -- Person-to-person betting exchange systems developer, TradingSports Exchange Systems and City Index, a financial spread betting company, are launching www.binexx.com, the first binary financial betting exchange. City Index's owner, Intercapital, promises tight user-controlled spreads and low commissions.
Wireless Hill -- William Hill has licensed wireless marketing company Enpocket's Engine application, which provides odds and gambling information for all racing, football, tennis, golf and rugby to mobile subscribers.